Nearly 37,000 students have registered for the first law common entrance test (CET) that will be conducted by the state government on June 18 and 19. Of these, 22,698 have applied for the three-year LLB programme. Close to one-third of the applicants ­ around 7,000 ­ for the three-year course from the state are from Mumbai, followed by Pune (2,960) and Aurangabad (1,155). Over 1,000 students from outside the state have also shown interest in the state's law entrance test, with most (605) coming from Delhi.

But the five-year programme (after 10+2) has more takers outside Maharashtra than the three-year programme. A total of 14,214 have applied for the entrance test for the five-year programme. Of these, 1,470 have applied from Delhi NCR region alone, followed by 965 from Lucknow and 808 from Bhopal. Only 2,242 students from Mumbai applied for the five-year programme, said an official from the state's CET cell.

In both programmes put together, Mumbai has seen registrations from nearly 10,000 aspirants.

“The data shows that demand for the law programme is the highest in Mumbai.There are many job opportunities here, which have attracted many students. But there could be more students who are inclined to pursue law in Mumbai and have not registered for the test,“ said a principal.